Our Souls at Night

Our Souls at Night

A Best Book of the YearThe Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Denver Post

In the familiar setting of Holt, Colorado, home to all of Kent Haruf's inimitable fiction, Addie Moore pays an unexpected visit to a neighbor, Louis Waters. Her husband died years ago, as did his wife, and in such a small town they naturally have known of each other for decades; in fact, Addie was quite fond of Louis's wife. His daughter lives hours away, her son even farther, and Addie and Louis have long been living alone in empty houses, the nights so terribly lonely, especially with no one to talk with. But maybe that could change? As Addie and Louis come to know each other better--their pleasures and their difficulties--a beautiful story of second chances unfolds, making Our Souls at Night the perfect final installment to this beloved writer's enduring contribution to American literature.

Promotion info

From the Folio Prize-shortlisted author of Plainsong, Eventide and Benediction, a stunning novel about finding happiness.

Reviews

To ring true, description of even the humblest kind of fulfilment and contentment must be written in awareness of human inadequacy and cruelty and the possibility of illness, ruin, death. One false word can make it all incredible. I don't think there's a false word in Kent Haruf's final novel, Our Souls in the Night ... Many novels have been about the pursuit of happiness, but this one is luminous with its actual presence ... Perhaps happiness is less predictable than misery, since it partakes of freedom. Like freedom, also, it's never secure; it can't be for ever. But it can be real, and in this beautiful novel, we can share it -- Ursula K Le Guin Guardian Simple, low-key and absolutely beautiful. The Times So beautiful; quietly gripping, full of love, humour and gentle shocks. Our Souls at Night is a perfect tribute to a truly extraordinary writer. -- Donal Ryan, author of THE SPINNING HEART A humane, deeply affecting final novel Daily Mail A delicate, sneakily devastating evocation of place and character ... Haruf's story accumulates resonance through carefully chosen details; the novel is quiet but never complacent New Yorker An eloquent story of a man and a woman who, in advanced age, come together to wrestle with the events of their lives and their hopes for the future. Red Magazine In a fitting and gorgeous end to a body of work that prizes resilience above all else, Haruf has bequeathed readers a map charting a future that is neither easy nor painless, but it's also not something we have to bear alone. Esquire His great subject was the struggle of decency against small-mindedness, and his rare gift was to make sheer decency a moving subject ... This novel runs on the dogged insistence that simple elements carry depths, and readers will find much to be grateful for. New York Times Short, spare and moving ... Our Souls at Night is already creating a stir. Wall Street Journal Utterly charming and distilled to elemental purity ... such a tender, carefully polished work that it seems like a blessing we had no right to expect. -- Ron Charles Washington Post A novel full of kindness, open-heartedness and grace, of ordinary experiences and commonplace regret ... unputdownable as a thriller - an unlikely page-turner full of quiet surprises ... It's an astonishing piece of writing Literary Review Gritty, painful and human ... his novels are imbued with an affection and understanding that transform the most mundane details into poetry ... Haruf's final novel is a beacon of hope; he is sorely missed -- Francesca Wade Financial Times I loved Kent Haruf's small-town love story -- David Nicholls If you haven't read Kent Haruf's wonderful backlist, now is the time to discover it. Or jump in at the end, with this novel; a graceful story ... a melancholy reminder that happiness can be fragile. Psychologies Magazine Gripping and tender ... a sweet love story, a deep friendship ... with a stunning sense of all that's passed and the precious importance of the days that remain. Publishers Weekly

Author description

Kent Haruf is the author of six novels (and, with the photographer Peter Brown, West of Last Chance). His honours include a Whiting Foundation Writers' Award, the Mountains Plains Booksellers Award, the Wallace Stegner Award, and a special citation from the PEN/Hemingway Foundation; he was also a finalist for the National Book Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and The New Yorker Book Award. Benediction was shortlisted for the Folio Prize. He died in November 2014, at the age of seventy-one.